The things every CSE undergrad should know and Do while pursuing B.E/B.Tech from tier 3 private Engineering college.
As you know the current scenario of the colleges(specifically tier-3 colleges), getting the good placements is easy but getting into the product based companies is hard, very hard. The casual lifestyle in the college is not going to get you a great job or shape your career. These are some of the things you can do in your college to shape your career.
⦿ Firstly the companies that come to recruit in tier 3 colleges are more or less glorified call center.This are not the CSE companies.
⦿ 75% attendance is useless.Your chances of becoming a skillful computer engineer is more if you homeschool yourself for 4 years.
⦿ Start coding from first year.Master any one programming language.C++ is the most preferred programming language to start with. Master any two programming languages.There is no need to learn dozens of programming languages.
⦿ Master Data Structures And Algorithms.Remember Data Structure And Algorithms are the brain and the heart of computer.Languages are merely the medium to implement this data structures and algorithms.You should be more focussed on Data Structures and Algorithms rather than learning new languages.
⦿ Remember languages are just the syntax and OOP concepts.They are nothing without DSA.
⦿ Start doing competitive programming once you feel confident enough.You should be solving problems on sites likes Codeforces ,Codechef,SPOJ etc.
⦿ Competitive programming will teach you to write buggless code.it will improve your knowledge of DSA.
⦿ Compete in the programming contests like ACM-ICPC,Google APAC, Hashcode and many more.this contest will teach you the importance of time management. If you perform well in these contests, you will get better job opportunities.
⦿ They say if you want to get placed in good product based companies marks matters the most.BUT if you are a 5 star ,6 star or 7 star coder on codeforces or codechef ,if you are an ACM-ICPC contestant,then no company will ask for your marks.Your chances of getting placed in your dream company is more(yes! i am talking about FAB 5). Remember no recruiter will reject this guy Gennady Korotkevich.
⦿ You must not waste your time preparing for quantitative aptitude and verbal reasoning from RS aggarwal. Instead you must study bible of programming “Introduction to algorithms” i.e CLRS and many more and must do competitive programming. Yes aptitude preparation is important but only for campus placements and higher education. It won’t help you get job at product-based companies.
⦿ Internship in real CSE companies like Google,Microsoft,Amazon etc is what is called as internship and paying roadside store for certificate is not an internship.
⦿ Hardly any private engineering student who is doing CS or IT knows this terms ICPC ,Codeforces,Google Codejam,Google Apac,Codechef snackdown.
⦿ Engineering is all about practical knowledge but in colleges students are taught to mug up things to just pass the exams.
⦿ Self study is more important than attending lectures.
⦿ It is you who will shape your career.
⦿ You should follow this people to learn more about CSE:
➜ Errichto
➜Petr mitrichev
⦿ You should follow this websites to learn more about cp:
➜ For learning great deal of mathematics you should do project euler.
➜ OpenGenus is great platform to learn about all these things.
➜ geeks for geeks is one another site to learn DS and many CSE stuff on your own.
Oh wait, I didn’t say that the Competitive programming is the only thing that can shape your future, right? Not everybody loves competitive programming. There got to be another way. CP can be really painful and frustrating at the starting but believe me, it will definitely guarantee you a great job. But at this time, your focus should not be on the job but on shaping yourself, increasing your value in the market, making yourself better than others. And like I said, CP is not the only thing.
As important is CP for the students, I think equally important is making Projects.
- As long as your Data Structure and Algorithms is good, you can do anything, you can build anything.
- Making projects is not challenging but you need to be consistent and serious about your project.
- Solving real life problems should be your main focus. Believe me, it feels super cool when your product or service will be helpful for the people or just yourself.
- Critical thinking is what you need(or will achieve) while making a start for your project.
- You are going to learn lots and lots of services and API’s out their in the world. The world is filled with lots of helpful things and getting exposure to these things will prove to be a blessing while doing personal projects.
- Be a part of Fraternities(Very important). There are lots of communities out there, like GDGs, DSCs, Facebook Developer Circle and many more. Be part of it. You are going to learn a lots of new things there.
- Make open source contributions (The best thing you will do in your learning career). Making open source contributions is one of the most admired task in the world of programming. Your contributions to the free-world counts a lot.
- Read IEEE journals to get good knowledge about whats going in the world.
- There are programs like HacktoberFest which encourages all for open source contributions. Want better than this? Google’s Summer of Code is the thing you should really focus on. Google provides Internship as well as gives you money on being selected for open source contribution. Its really cool.The stipend is given by google and it is very very high like 150k INR.
- In the final year try to build a startup,work there for quite a time if it works then its okay else leave that and go ahead.
What I really want to say is that the Problem Solving is important whether your focus is on Competitive Programming or Project based learning. Both has their own benefits. What I would suggest is that finding a way which is passing through both of these nodes.
Sample for the summary: In 4 years of engineering
First year: Learn a programming language in a month or two(Start with C++ or Python). Learn Data Structure and Algorithms soon after learning a language.(Don’t wait for your college to complete it for you as the college curriculum will not match your expectation of becoming Competitive coder). Practise DSA with your favourite language for entire year.
Second year: Go on for solving harder problems. Practise regularly on the platforms which I mentioned earlier. Participate in monthly contests. Break your own rules to become the best in your college(its not that hard). Parallely, try to find your interest for your next year. Decide what do you want to make your career on(what do you want to become, Web developer, Mobile app developer, Data Scientist, ML Engineer, Cloud Engineer or just a Software Engineer). Try to get insights about your major.
Third year: Third year will be precious year, as the company might soon come for the placements or for internships. Try making some projects in whatever field you have chosen. At this point, you should be really good programmer waiting to apply all of your knowledge in your projects. Learn the basics of project management as well(it will help sooner or later). Go for team work or group project if you like.
Fourth year: You have done a lot. Take a deep breath, relax. Feel yourself above from everyone if you like that feeling. Just kidding. Try to make a solution for real life problems, make a project, a big one. Work for it as you are going to make that product a company. HAHA. Enjoy your last year of Engineering.
P.S. Thankyou Ashish Karhade, Aniket Ingle, Amit Gupta for edits.
